The present invention is with respect to an apparatus for supplying small- to medium-sized stationary heating plant with solid but flowable fuels as for example coal dust or coal grains, having at least on fuel storage bin, a boiler and a pneumatic conveying unit placed therebetween.
Herein the wording "small- to medium-sized heating plant" is used in the sense of plant with a small to medium heat output as used in private houses, groups of flats, public buildings and the like, but not plant with a high output as for example the heating plant of a district heating system.
Up till the present time a plant of the sort in question has for the most part been run on liquid or gas fuel, this offering the useful effect of simple control being possible, while on the other hand plant run on solid fuels such as coal or the like has become less common, and inasfar as it is still in existence, it mostly has to be stoked by hand which makes much work, but automatic operation is hardly possible because of the solid nature of the fuel, of the long burning time etc. Of late attention has been given to the idea of running heating plant with a small to medium heat output on flowable solid fuels such as coal dust and coal grains, such fuels having in fact been used for firing district heating systems for some time.
A condition that has to be kept to in this respect is that the storing and processing of the fuel be able to take place more or or less completely automatically, the consumer in fact become used to this in the case of liquid and gas fuels. The technical design side of conveying systems for such a purpose has largely been taken care of, inasfar as the fuel used is flowable coal material such as coal in a breeze-like or dust form, and there are furthermore no troubles in connection with the technical side of transport systems when such fuels are selected, because they may be transported to the point of use in tanker vehicles, and then pumped from the vehicle pneumatically into the consumer's storage space.
The present invention has to do with the storing of fuel by the consumer. In this respect a condition to be kept to by such storing system, if it to be competitive, is that, more importantly, it have a low purchase price in the first place. Furthermore it has to be possible for the solid fuel to be stored like heating oil indoors. If this is to be possible, the containers for the fuel have to be so designed that they may be installed in buildings very simply. A further point is that the heating plant is to be able to be run more or less automatically.